andirk
andirk on Hacker News
Is gold a store of value? It's quite volatile. Is paper backed by nothing and printed on a whim a currency? It's often slow for large transactions. Is Magic the Gathering Black Lotus card a product? It doesn't _do_ anything.
One definite use of bitcoin is to transfer moneys all over the place.
Maybe the lesson is: don't fall in love with something and then sell it.
This type of capitalism is tiresome, but is not that what these companies sign up for when they sell their souls to the highest bidder with fingers crossed that those money-first buyers give an F about the heart and soul of the company and product?
One of my most favorite apps that I use daily and is the basis of my short story where the algorithms start causing people to do weird things like check-in to natural disasters before they happen.
Ironically, my story (done at end of 2026) will live on longer than its inspired app.
Dang.
I see BitPay around town here in the Bay Area. I use BTC to fund my degenerate sports gamblings. It's not common, but it's around. The whole deflationary aspect encourages hording, though, which is both a positive and a negative aspect.
All true, but I did learn that there are two similar implementations, one NSA and one not, and Satoshi went with the latter.
If someone can crack SHA256 etc, they 1) have cracked a lot more than bitcoin, and 2) it will be highly monetarily advantageous to him to not reveal it nor F with it.
A "cavity" is a subjective diagnosis. You may very well be fine with those pinhole crevices, or you will become a member of "The Big Book of British Smiles". I suggest going to a dentist once or twice a year for regular upkeep.
Correct. That is one of a few of them and thank you for the name of the third party. I read it, and mostly have the same opinion.
If I make a computer virus and then it works, did it go rogue or did it do what I told it to? The claim is that the agent/software/whatever decided on its own to do nefarious acts, and that is what I doubt. I think the guilty code did what it was written to do, albeit some distance from the humans' direct orders.
The ethical angles of AI are debatable, but how a company frames their own product as so superior that it went rogue and successfully attacked all the things should be critiqued and not believed until otherwise proven.
It's a race, and a speculative one, so flexing _constantly_ to stay seemingly ahead is expected.
You are correct about the negative aspect of deflationary, but if you believed in your view, then why did you not grab a bag?
Very cool! Need the Android app. Do you need any help building/porting it? React Native?
As others have mentioned, it reminds me of Foursquare of years ago that a lot of us miss.
It's opt-in. Big difference between opt-in and a surveillance state that does whatever it wants carte blanche. The latter will still, of course, use and abuse the former. All my check-ins are belong to "Illifion"! Or wtf named ad company.
Compare to stonks or precious metals and it's a similar, mostly unknowing situation.
I moved some BTC from Coinbase today, which is a pricier option, and they took a house rake of 1.8%. Other moves cost way way less, especially if not in a hurry and the network isn't busy.
My situation compares to a remittances transfer like Western Union https://www.westernunion.com/content/dam/wu/EU/EN/210439812_... which charge about 4%+.
Cash-to-cash is free, but it loses value while it sits under your mattress.
> but ran companies that were just casinos and actually could have simpler operations without the crypto parts
Creating a product for the sake of using a technology is a flawed order of operations. However, the glitz and glamour of a new money for a new internet is enticing with a lot of promise. I'm a crypto bro, but my crypto confidence has waned recently. My confidence in the USD has also waned.
What is a proprietary crop?
TLDR it wasn't tied to the fishing rod like a lure. That's what I was hoping.
Or that people commonly make their purchases via corporations. "Issued" can mean a lot of things.
You already stated what is wrong with you. Should be interesting to see the final mastication.
"Developed by Iran’s Ministry of Economy, it accepts payment in Bitcoin and other digital assets as part of the regime’s attempts to bypass Western sanctions."
The one mention of bitcoin.
HN is very, very bitter about being there at the beginning of an interesting, fun, and promising technology that could have easily enriched them. Bitcoin and crypto is very on topic, but pricing not so much.
My understanding: As rstuart4133 mentioned, the rules were changed to 1) allow a partial IPO, 2) forego proving several positive quarters beforehand, 3) allow weird as hell lockout rules such as pre-IPOers to exit after 1 day.
Maybe it's all innocent, or it's an intentional transfer of wealth.
I think they're selling because they're raising money for dividends and such. The word "quantum" isn't even mentioned in the article, nor has anything to do with MSTR selling btc.
There is no singular mind to bitcoin. Watch CNBC for 1 week and you will see stonks trade a 40x their worth and rise and fall for no reason anyone knows. It's not that much different than assets that are traded on speculation far more than any factual tangible worth.
Being "a" player in a multi-billion $ industry is also pretty good. For example, Bing gets some small % of the search engine market, but that's still a ton of market and $. And Foursquare/Swarm is used by like 0.01% of the population, but they can still map the exact floor plan of Macy's and that Chipotle will lose 30% of their share value from people shiitting blood (both were extremely accurate).
And then Bing gets a pretty big upgrade: ChatGPT. And here we are.
The BTC was worth some 500 large quid when it got tossed. Claude will tell him to be more careful of all of his belongings. I personally have every hard drive I've ever owned, but this guy insisted on throwing that one in the "tip".
Ver cool! Except FYI that it started crashing my browser before I had to run away.
My specs:
- Brave browser
- Tons of tabs open
- Macbook Pro Intel chip
Currency is the most useful when it changes hands constantly. I have mattresses. You have cookies. He has milk. I buy cookies and milk. You buy milk and mattresses. He buys mattresses and cookies. That's better than all of us in a standoff because we don't want to use our currency. Horrible analogy.